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Challenge #04370-K352: Strangers in the Woods

A: "It's all natural!"

B: "So're arsenic and cyanide." -- Anon Guest

There are, in magical worlds, places where the people do not trust magic. They shun it, exile those with magic in their bones, and even watch those using sleight of hand with suspicious eyes. The threat of a noose, or a pyre, lurked within those hateful eyes.

They also mistrust anything new, anything from the outside, and anyone who doesn't look like them.

No matter what you do to improve a society, or a world, there's always pockets of resistance who believe that everything was better when it was all worse. You'd think it would be the Dragons or the Elves who are most like that, but... shockingly, it's the Humans. One of the species with the shortest lifespans likes to keep things the way they were when they were children.

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Challenge #04364-K346: Repurposed Unwanted

More baskets of unwanted children, of all species, not just the unwanted races. Why do they keep putting them at my cave? We're not going to eat them. Oh well, I guess our army will just have to keep growing. What does my army do? We were founded by masters of the way of shadows. What we do is gently spread the teachings of the first sensei, and keep gathering more baskets. -- Anon Guest

They call the cave The Unwanted Mouth

Challenge #04363-K345: Song Without Voice

Illness had robbed them of the ability to speak, their kind brauniin friend that gently nursed them through it helped them learn to sing. Though it took time, patience, and though it hurt some, the kindness of loved ones. -- Anon Guest

Brauniin pride themselves on being unnoticed. Kind deeds done without reward nor praise. Help where it's needed, for those who toil but fail regardless. They only take that which is offered, or that which will not be noticed.

People know

Challenge #04359-K341: Not Touched by Human Hands

This restaurant had the reputation of being one of the best, and the most adaptive, places around. The fact it was owned, and ran, by kobolds surprised many that didn't know them. The head chef is quite an interesting kobold indeed. -- Anon Guest

Food, everyone agrees, is the foundation of life. What everyone disagrees with is how preparation and preservation should be done. Everyone points at other peoples and declares that they're doing it wrong. Cultural cross-contamination has spread many methods

Challenge #04351-K333: Help From Nowhere

She was alone in the ramshackle hut having a difficult birth, the last survivor of a caravan. Fortunately for her, the family of Brauniin heard her cries, and came to this woman in her hour of need. -- Anon Guest

The house barely had a roof left, more weeds and leaf litter than true thatch, nevertheless, it counted as a house. The Hidden Ones lingered there. A house wants its Faekindred. Brauniin or Nisse, some waited for the ruin to be a

Challenge #04349-K331: Unappreciated Comparison

I feel utterly worthless.

"You're a weed waving among the brick and stone."

See? Worthless.

"You ability to thrive truly has shown."

What .. do you mean?

"Your strength, my dear, I'm so proud you've grown!"

There among the bare gravel, where there's very little that's green, a lone dandelion is visited by a butterfly. -- Anon Guest

It's easy to devalue yourself when nobody else finds you worthy. It's easy to not wish to be part of a world that hates you

Challenge #04345-K327: Home of Contention

They lived in a land where polygamy was common. However, this trio was ... shocking for none had seen the like. They were human, one of their loves was hellkin, the other was halloblood. And all three loved each other almost more than life itself. Now if only outsiders would stop trying to rescue them! -- Lessons

Pax, Amity, and Grace lived out of the way from most residents of Lauthiraux. They had a happy life together, not that many in Lauthiraux believed

Challenge #04342-K324: Giving a Hand

They wanted to be a Great Hero, wearing gleaming armor and recognized through the land.

They became a Great Hero, without fanfare or armor, the night they were willing to dislodge boulders which cascaded and jammed tight as the strongest brickwork ever known into the ravine, stopping a massive flood from destroying the city. Even though it cost them their primary hand. -- Anon Guest

Heroism only looks like a gleaming costume, a white charger, or a blazing sword. That's how heroes

Challenge #04310-K292: Little Surprises

A mixed band of older adventurers came to the glade seeking aid for a comrade who had been badly wounded, lest the person, their dear friend, die. Due to their advanced ages, they asked if they could help by setting up a nearby hospital, so she didn't have to do all of this work alone. A peaceful life of aiding others in their golden years.

https://peakd.com/fiction/@internutter/challenge-04255-k237-unpaid-respect -- Anon Guest

In the world of Adventuring, thirty is old.

Challenge #04309-K291: Oathbound Help

The human made a Heart-Sworn Oath that, as long as they lived, no matter who it was, they would help them. Then came the day one of the ones that cruelly bullied them for being kind to the unwelcome came for aid. But an Oath does not care if the person was a bully. The bully was shocked when this person also refused to break their word. -- Anon Guest

[AN: In my personal experience, bullies tend to crow about taking advantage

Challenge #04305-K287: An Attempt to Learn

Anger, rage, sorrow, betrayal, resentment, these were all they felt. Bound tightly in the enchanted bonds, the young adult looked upon the wizard with hard eyes and said just kill me and be done with it, finish what THEY started.

The wizard looked sadly upon the youth stating they would not die, but it was time they started to heal, and learned there was a gentler path to life. -- Anon Guest

It's easy to be angry, to paraphrase wise sages, at

Challenge #04303-K285: Backburning Request

A: Y-you bastard! You played us like a damn fiddle!

B: oh please, Fiddles are intricate instruments that take years to master.

I played you like the kazoo you are. -- Anon Guest

[AN: I've seen variants of this exchange where the kazoo is described as "cheap" too]

I believed it was for the greater good. I thought the things I was doing were necessary evils. Minor harms in the great, grander scheme. I could only see small fragments of the bigger

Challenge #04302-K284: Desperate Need

They hated hellkin and others like them, and made it very clear, very publicly. Then the time came they were very sick, almost all healers had given up hope. It was a hellkin who saved their life. Sitting with them, talked with them, caring for them. It was then that the hatred learned at the knee of their parental, began to disappear beneath the weight of understanding. -- Anon Guest

There's many places like it. City-states, nations, minor polities all who made

Challenge #04295-K277: Kindness Comes in Handy

The adult giant was nearly 10 ft tall, kinda short for their kind. Their parentals, humans, lived near the massive cottage where the giant lived. When asked by other giants why "bugs were allowed here", the giant angrily would state "Don't you dare insult my parents!" -- Anon Guest

Others of hir kind called hir 'Shrimp' because ze was only twice the height of the average Human. Small for Giantkind. Hir real name was Elianto, and her parents loved and cherished hir.

Challenge #04294-K276: A Different Destiny

A: sometimes you fit perfectly, but it’s not the right place.

B: …what?

C: you’re a half empty bottle of coke screwed into a lightbulb socket

B: Oh I get it.

A:??? How the f- -- Anon Guest

[AN: There are so many ways this metaphor could be altered, but you chose a meme]

There were three jigsaw puzzles, and it was possible to put them together by feel. However, one needed vision to put them together properly. Each puzzle,

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A 180-post collection

Challenge #04370-K352: Strangers in the Woods

Challenge #04364-K346: Repurposed Unwanted

Challenge #04363-K345: Song Without Voice

Challenge #04359-K341: Not Touched by Human Hands

Challenge #04351-K333: Help From Nowhere

Challenge #04349-K331: Unappreciated Comparison

Challenge #04345-K327: Home of Contention

Challenge #04342-K324: Giving a Hand

Challenge #04310-K292: Little Surprises

Challenge #04309-K291: Oathbound Help

Challenge #04305-K287: An Attempt to Learn

Challenge #04303-K285: Backburning Request

Challenge #04302-K284: Desperate Need

Challenge #04295-K277: Kindness Comes in Handy

Challenge #04294-K276: A Different Destiny